• Insights

William Shakespeare said a rose is a rose by any name you call it. Not really, is what I have discovered as an entrepreneur and mentor! In English, it may mean rose but in business the same word may actually mean thorn! Or vice-versa.

When I was growing up, the word ‘disruptive’ had negative connotation. It meant ‘anything that causes disturbance’ and its synonyms are turbulent, tumultuous, troubled, riotous. In 1995, Clayton Christensen used the term ‘disruptive technology’ for the first time to mean ‘anything that challenges the status quo, significantly improves upon it and spreads throughout society’. The reach was very important here. So in that sense, Ford’s T mobile was not disruptive as it did not replace horse drawn carriages across society. Penicillin, on the other hand, was a disruptive innovation! We talk of disruptive technologies, disruptive innovation and use these words as sine qua non for an entrepreneur. So today, in entrepreneurship, ‘disruptive’ is a wonderful word!

Redundancy is another word. To my knowledge, in English, it means ‘anything that is excessive, repetitive or overlapping’, therefore, a bad thing. But in entrepreneurship, it means ‘having backups’ and if you haven’t built redundancies into your processes, it means that you are vulnerable to the carrom balls that the marketplace chuck at you.

MySpace never fails to amuse me. In English, my space clearly is territorial. It spells privacy and it tells the rest of the world to back off. But MySpace is a social networking site where you live your life as publicly as possible! Poke is another word that brings a smile to my face. In English, poke is an irritating word, but on FB it is such a friendly word! Viral is a word I find it hard to come to terms with. Even to this day, any viral disease is to be dreaded. It connotes infectiousness, it spreads like wildfire, and it is hard to contain. But this is one word that gives orgasmic delight to a marketer. This is a word that sends him into raptures because to a marketer, viral means two things: one, he need not spend big bucks to acquire every single customer and two, it means for every customer he acquires, that customer will infect 10 others with his enthusiasm for his product! So now, viral is synonymous with evangelical!

Game-changing is another word which is so wonderful in the context of the entrepreneur because it means he has ‘transformed the world beyond recognition’, but in English language, it was borrowed from the casino tables of Las Vegas. A game-changer was essentially a con-man. If somebody was found to be extraordinarily lucky at the tables, a game changer was called whose job was to ensure that he rolled the dice in such a way that it changed the player’s fortunes!

One last word before I sign off. Diligence. In English, it means ‘exertion of body and mind, to accomplish what is undertaken’. Which is a good thing. But in entrepreneurship, it is tinged with a hint of suspicion and question mark. So when an investor says he will do due diligence before he invests in your business, what he is actually saying is that he will validate whether the rosy picture painted by the entrepreneur is rosy or thorny!

I am sure we can go on and on. I’d love it if all you readers can share your similar lists with me! Till then, ciao! (my mother thought ciao was the sound made by female cats as opposed to miaow which she thought was the sound made by male cats!)

NANDINI VAIDYANATHAN teaches entrepreneurship and mentors entrepreneurs (www.carmaconnect.in) She is also the author of Entrepedia, a step-by-step guide to becoming an entrepreneur
in India.

©Entrepreneur September 2011

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business, entrepreneur, MySpace, Nandini Vaidyanathan, word